With less than a week to go before the Sept. 11 General Assembly primaries, deep-pocketed out-of-state donors are spending large sums of money to swing races across Rhode Island.

Tim Gill, the wealthy Denver software entrepreneur known for quietly backing same-sex marriage drives from coast to coast, donated $20,000 on Sunday to a new group called People for Rhode Island’s Future.

The same organization got $15,000 from Esmond Harmsworth, a founding partner of Boston literary agency Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary Agency and owner of the Four Winds estate on Newport’s Bellevue Avenue, as well as much smaller donations of $500 each from three other individuals.

Another famous name – New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg – donated $160,500 on Aug. 11 to 50CAN Action Fund Inc., whose Rhode Island chapter supports changes to education policy, according to a R.I. Board of Elections filing. The group also got $50,000 from Jonathan Sackler, whose father co-founded Purdue Pharma, and $2,500 from local tech entrepreneur Angus Davis.

50CAN Action Fund said it spent $44,902 on Aug. 30 supporting four candidates in next week’s primary: DaPonte, Jon Brien, Maura Kelly and Mia Ackerman. The group’s Rhode Island chapter endorsed all of them except DaPonte.

The SEIU Local 1199 union reported spending $5,316 out of its own treasury supporting four of its favored candidates: Stephen Casey, Lew Pryeor, Gayle Goldin and Bob DaSilva.